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This portfolio comprises of a statistical investigation into the genre of Swancore, a “musical hybrid” influenced by progressive post-hardcore, mathcore & Japanese rock, funk & RnB and as of late, mainstream pop. Having done extensive reading, listening and writing in the fields of musicology, ethnomusicology and acoustic ecology, and being particularly invested in the growth of and changes within the Swancore scene, I would like, with this investigation, to combine my interests on a new, statistical frontier. This portfolio is for a course in Computational Musicology at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Using data collected by the Spotify API I will address 2 points of interest: 1. How the push towards a poppier sound influences the music’s reception 2. How this poppier sound informs/is informed by the music’s other qualities (such as Key, Mode, Valence, and Danceability).

This investigation centres around 6 major Swancore artists; Dance Gavin Dance (DGD), A Lot Like Birds (ALLB), Royal Coda (RC), Stolas, Body Thief (BT) and Sianvar. This corpus will also include a variety of smaller artists to show how these central figures have influenced more general trends across the genre as a whole.

DGD’s long lifespan and reputation for having founded the genre places it front and centre in this investigation - in many regards, the changes in sound which this band experienced largely define adn inspire the Swancore genre today, and as such I expect their changes in musical qualities will be reflected by other bands. However, as DGD ages and becomes “old news”, RC and other newer additions to the roster of Swancore artists have deviated from the “core” Swancore sound, and in turn these deviations are a better representation of the genre in its current state. Additionally, the contributions to the genre by smaller bands, while inspired by the sounds which came before them, will likely implicate the direction in which the genre is headed in the future.

BT and Stolas should present an interesting parallel, having been formed within a few years of one another and initially possessing a distinctly similar sound, even within Swancore, and having released three albums each, the third of each respectively delving further into mainstream sounds than either band had done before (jazz and funk in Stolas’ case, Western pop in BT’s). But, while Stolas separated in 2018, BT continues to remain together to the present day. I hope that this parallel can help identify how much popularity relies on recency. Here too, the data on smaller bands should serve as an indicator of exactly how correlated popularity and danceability are.

As a Swancore-adjacent progressive post-hardcore band, whose discography stretches across a far wider range of influences than DGD or any of the other bands in this corpus, I want to identify if ALLB’s popularity is correlated with its proximity of to Swancore/Poppier influences. Similarily, I would like to take time to identify where Swancore as a genre lies, between its progressive post hardcore roots and pop-funk influences.

One of the primary issues with assessing such a niche and complex genre is how data about it is gathered and catagorised. As the Spotify API runs on relationality (placing all data points in relation to one another), a genre still so linked with the less accessible (both musically and socially) post-hardcore scene will not have as large a range of popularity, danceability, and other subjective characteristics. As such, this portfolio only seeks to identify qualitative trends and will not speak to any quantitative differences/changes.

Tracks of interest in this corpus will be DGD’s Summertime Gladness, ALLB’s Vanity’s Fair, RC’s Even If, BT’s Night Owls in Mating Season, Stolas’ Bellweather, Sianvar’s Your Tongue Ties and from smaller artists, Properties of Nature’s Mind Goblin and Cat Company’s Sad Dance.

This little introduction aside, I hope you click, scroll, read and listen on, and that you enjoy the output of these past few weeks!

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This page hosts two graphical representations of Summertime Gladness, one of Dance Gavin Dance’s most popular singles, and their most danceable according to Spotify’s API. [analysis pending]

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This page hosts two graphical representations of Vanity’s Fair, one of A Lot Like Birds’ most popular, and their most danceable Single release according to Spotify’s API. [analysis pending]

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